UN says Myanmar military killed 702 civilians during election period

The United Nations said Myanmar’s military killed at least 702 civilians during the six months it used to project an election return to normalcy, including 224 women and 153 children. The toll, verified by credible sources from August 2025 through the end of January 2026, exposed a widening gap between the military’s political messaging and its continued campaign of violence against civilians.

The UN rights office said 476 of the deaths came from airstrikes, and at least 505 civilians were killed in attacks carried out with jet fighters, drones, para-motors and gyrocopters. It attributed the killings to the Myanmar military while noting the figure was not comprehensive and did not mean other armed groups caused no civilian casualties.

Civilian deaths spiked in August and September 2025, when the military announced elections, and again in December 2025 as battlefield advances continued. The report also said 111 deaths, including 43 women and 10 children, occurred before voting began in December. That pattern, the United Nations said, undercut any claim that political staging had brought restraint on the ground.

Volker Türk said the retaliatory attacks were designed to “control, intimidate and punish the population,” and warned that without accountability civilian casualties would continue to rise. The UN called for Myanmar to be referred to the International Criminal Court and urged states to stop transfers of arms, jet fuel and dual-use items that could enable further abuses.

Myanmar has been in civil war since the February 2021 coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. The UN said violence against civilians intensified sharply in 2024, when it recorded the heaviest civilian death toll since the coup, with at least 1,824 people killed, including 531 women and 248 children. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has said at least 6,231 civilians were killed by the military over four years, including 1,144 women and 709 children.

The UN also said the military deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure, including schools, places of worship, healthcare facilities and displacement camps, driving mass displacement and disrupting essential services. A separate June 2026 UN report said worsening conflict and declining international assistance were compounding the suffering of millions, while civil society and local governance structures took on civilian protection roles as aid cuts threatened those efforts.